Apparently, in an attempt to paint Michael Brown as anything less
than innocent, people have been spreading an image of an armed
17-year-old Joda Cain around the web and claiming that it’s Michael
Brown.

Joda Cain is accused of murder
in my home state of Oregon, and has literally jack sh*t to do with the
Michael Brown murder in Ferguson, Missouri. THESE ARE NOT THE SAME
PEOPLE. Anyone using the above image as “proof” that Michael Brown
“deserved” to be shot should be called out for defamation, and promptly
thrown down a spiral staircase.

The bottom photo is the real Michael Brown.
He was called a “gentle giant” by friends and family. He was unarmed
and innocent, and he was murdered by a police officer after being shot
more than seven times at close range. Witnesses, including a friend who
was with him at the time of the shooting, all agree that he was doing
nothing deserving of such violent actions from the officer who gunned
him down.

in America, black people are being gunned down simply for being
alive, gay people can’t get married/can’t get jobs, politicians say
women are asking for rape, trans people are being murdered every day,
Middle Easterns are suspected to be terrorists, white men are defended
for shooting up schools, teenage boys are building bombs to murder
family and schoolmates and yet people still have the audacity to say
this is the land of the free

As Andy Henriquez, a 19 year old from Washington Heights lay in his
cell dying from a tear in his aorta, an artery that supplies blood to
the heart, he asked a guard if he could call his mother just to say
goodbye. For days he suffered in pain barely able to breathe as the
blood made its way down to his groin. He request was denied. His fellow
inmates knew something was wrong. They screamed and kicked doors in a
failed bid to get Andy some help.

A doctor who visited him earlier that day prescribed him hand cream and wrote the prescription in the wrong name.

Hours later he was found dead on the floor of his cell.

This happened in April of last year, New Yorkers are just hearing
about it today because a suit has been filed by the lawyer of Mr.
Henriquez’s family.

In this last year I have been thinking about some things….

I have thought about the death of Eric Garner and the muted outrage that followed.

I have thought about all the black men who were set up by Detective
Louis Scarcella from Brooklyn, who have languished in jail for years and
are just now having their cases reviewed after it was discovered
Scarcella was crooked and the silence that followed.

I have thought about how everyone just accepts that Stop and Frisk is
a thing of the past and that the rights of black and brown men here in
New York City are not still being violated.

I have thought about how slick it was for our Mayor to parade his
black family in front of the cameras to get elected and how New Yorkers
have yet to check him for basically being Bloomberg 2.0.

I have thought about those who live in the projects whose stewards,
NYCHA, last year said they had a surplus of money to fix them and are
now saying this year they have no money.

I have thought about how “affordable housing” here means you must
make damn near 100k, yet no one seems to believe that this city hates
its poor.

I have thought about the fact that this city has the highest rates of
workplace discrimination lawsuits in the country, yet no one wants to
address racism in the workplace.

I have thought about how gentrification of this city has made many
neighborhoods I once loved and enjoyed unrecognizable and in my view
turned its residents into the quietest, softest, most passive lot of New
Yorkers I have ever experienced in my lifetime here.

Who the are you people?

There will be very little outrage over Mr. Henriquez’s death. This lot of New Yorkers would be more outraged if you kicked a cat than if you choked a young black man to death or allowed one to internally bleed to death on the floor of a jail cell.

Ladies and Gentleman, the man that will be in history books. He was throwing the burning tear gas. Not to the cops but away from the children protesting. In his American Shirt and bag of chips. Check his twitter.

When we talk about what we can do AFTER the ferguson situation, even now actually, joining local voting efforts for our communities is of extreme importance.

I think the lack of voting by AAs is truly cultural. No one in my family votes aside from the presidential election. But now my state has an awful governor and we all complain about him.

Dialogue about how we can change that for our people on a national level needs to be continually addressed. IA it would make a world of difference.

I agree. With the bolded, have you tried encouraging your family members to vote? Since they hate the governor, do you think that could be motivation to get them out to vote at the next election? I agree with your other post as well. Personally, I could start with myself and my family members to encourage them to vote at local elections.

No I haven't but I'm seriously going to change that. Joining local voting initiatives is my first step.

I think a lot of my family members feel like it's pointless. I see that defeatist attitude a lot with our people though.

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